Modding question: max ammo

Valamyr · Post by **Valamyr** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:31 am

Hi guys!

Bloodlines fan here. Ive played the game quite a bit, and lately, I've taken a liking to exploring the game files and modding stuff a bit to alter my gameplay. There's something thats been puzzling me, though, and Im thinking someone here might help me.

I found out easily to mod some firearms ammo properties such as price, amount fired between reloads, and amounts dropped in the individual weapon files in \vdata\items. However, I've looked everywhere to find a way to edit the MAX amount of ammo carried for each ammo type (ex, 37 crossbow bolts, 20 high velocity bullets, etc). There seems to be no data regarding this anywhere, and as such, I cannot mod it to my liking.

I like to be carrying 245 pounds of ammo as much as the next guy, not counting crossbow bolts encumbrance, but seriously!

So anyway, anyone knows if this specific thing is hardcoded, or if ive overlooked something in some obscure system file? Thanks a ton for any help

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 9:05 pm

If it's not in the item files for the weapons, then I don't know where else to look. It's most likely hard coded into the user interface, in which case there's nothing we can do about it.

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:21 pm

While looking for something else, I found out how to increase the maximum ammo for guns.

In the Vampire\cfg folder there is a file named skill1.cfg. Use notepad to open it and go down the section on weapons. For each firearm in the game there is a line that reads sk_max_weapon_round followed by a number. That number is the maximum ammo that particular firearm can carry.

I changed my skill1.cfg file to set the maximum ammo the Colt .45 can carry to 360 (same as the Glock). To do this, open the skill1.cfg file and go to the line

sk_max_anaconda_round

Change the 198 to 360. Save and close the file. To test it, just enter the impulse 101 command in the console when you enter the game. This will give you, among other things, a Colt Anaconda with maximum ammo - which is now 360 rounds.

NOTE: I haven't done any thorough testing with this, so I don't know what the highest possible number you can set a weapon's maximum ammo to is yet.

Valamyr · Post by **Valamyr** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:36 pm

Thank you so very much, sir!

I'll let Werner Spahl know, since I asked him and he didn't know either.

Thanks

Valamyr · Post by **Valamyr** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 5:47 pm

Hey, uh, I looked for skill1.cfg in the subdirectory you mentioned, and then did a search for any file with that name in the whole bloodlines directory, but sadly, i dont seem to have any file labelled so. I'm a bit puzzled, but ill try to figure out why that is so.

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:01 pm

Very strange. It's not a hidden file or anything, and it's not something that I created. I even have a backup of all version 1.2 files for the game on my system, and it's in the cfg folder there as well.

It's a pretty small file. Here are the contents:

// ===========
// NPCs
// ============

// Vampire NPCs

sk_generic_npc_health "10"
sk_sabbat_npc_health "10"

// Bullseye
sk_bullseye_health "35"

// =================
// WEAPONS
// =================

sk_plr_dmg_anaconda_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_anaconda_round "2"
sk_max_anaconda_round "198"

sk_plr_dmg_crossbow_bolt "8"
sk_npc_dmg_crossbow_bolt "2"
sk_max_crossbow_bolt "36"

sk_plr_dmg_glock_17c_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_glock_17c_round "2"
sk_max_glock_17c_round "360"

sk_plr_dmg_deserteagle_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_deserteagle_round "2"
sk_max_deserteagle_round "288"

sk_plr_dmg_ithica_m37_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_ithica_m37_round "2"
sk_max_ithica_m37_round "90"

sk_plr_dmg_mac10_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_mac10_round "2"
sk_max_mac10_round "390"

sk_plr_dmg_remington_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_remington_round "2"
sk_max_remington_round "20"

sk_plr_dmg_steyr_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_steyr_round "2"
sk_max_steyr_round "390"

sk_plr_dmg_supershotgun_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_supershotgun_round "2"
sk_max_supershotgun_round "160"

sk_plr_dmg_uzi_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_uzi_round "2"
sk_max_uzi_round "396"

sk_plr_dmg_flamethrower_round "1"
sk_npc_dmg_flamethrower_round "1"
sk_max_flamethrower_round "150"

sk_plr_dmg_thirtyeight_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_thirtyeight_round "2"
sk_max_thirtyeight_round "128"

sk_plr_dmg_bloodpack_round "0"
sk_npc_dmg_bloodpack_round "0"
sk_max_bloodpack_round "9"

sk_plr_dmg_bluebloodpack_round "0"
sk_npc_dmg_bluebloodpack_round "0"
sk_max_bluebloodpack_round "9"

sk_plr_dmg_eldervitaepack_round "0"
sk_npc_dmg_eldervitaepack_round "0"
sk_max_eldervitaepack_round "3"

sk_plr_dmg_throwing_star "2"
sk_npc_dmg_throwing_star "1"
sk_max_throwing_star "10"

sk_plr_dmg_small_round "4"
sk_npc_dmg_small_round "1"
sk_max_small_round "150"

sk_plr_dmg_medium_round "8"
sk_npc_dmg_medium_round "2"
sk_max_medium_round "150"

sk_plr_dmg_large_round "12"
sk_npc_dmg_large_round "3"
sk_max_large_round "150"

sk_plr_dmg_buckshot "8"
sk_npc_dmg_buckshot "1"
sk_max_buckshot "30"

sk_plr_dmg_sniper_round "35"
sk_npc_dmg_sniper_round "100"
sk_max_sniper_round "30"

// player damage adjusters
sk_player_head "1"
sk_player_chest "1"
sk_player_stomach "1"
sk_player_arm "1"
sk_player_leg "1"

Try creating a skill1.cfg file and copying the above into it. Then you can change your max ammo to whatever you want.

Valamyr · Post by **Valamyr** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 12:30 am

Thanks a ton for pasting that. I created a file with the same name, but it didnt get run by default. So I figured I could either add the relevant info to the autoexec, or a line in the autoexec calling the newly created file. It worked both ways.

Additionally, you can call the individual lines, like sk_max_crossbow_bolt "20" in the console, if you want the maximum crossbow bolts to be 20, for exemple. However, if you do it that way, it seems to get overriden whenever you reload.

Anyhow, thanks a ton for the precious info.

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 12:59 am

Very strange. All I had to do was edit skill1.cfg and the effects were automatic. I noticed the commands in the console as well after I found the file, but you're right. When you use the console to do it it's not a persistant change. There are a couple of other commands that work that way too, but I can't remember them off the top of my head now.

Anyway... What version of the game are you running? Official 1.2? Unofficial patch version... ? I'm just wondering why this file is behaving differently on my system than it does on yours.

EDIT: Just had a thought. Have you extracted all of the .vpk's? The skill1.cfg file might have been in one of them. I have everything extracted from the .vpk's in my main Vampire directory and in my backup of VTMB 1.2. That might be why you weren't able to see the file in the beginning.

Valamyr · Post by **Valamyr** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 6:15 pm

V3.3, but no, i havent extracted anything from the vpks. There we go.

Didnt know you could extract from them. Does it help with loading times?

Anaximander · Post by **Anaximander** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 10:07 pm

Does it help with loading times?

It's supposed to. With the files extracted, the game can access them directly instead of delving into the compressed .vpk folders to find them. I didn't see any improvement when I did it, but maybe it's more noticeable on slower systems.

If you extract the .vpk's, it will overwrite whatever data is in your Vampire folder now. The best way to do it is to completely unininstall the game, deleting all folders leftover when the uninstall is complete. Then reinstall, extract the .vpk's, install patch 1.2, then any unofficial patches you want.

Of course, the only reason to do any of this is if you want to look at all of the game's data files. It helps if you want to any modding of your own. The unofficial patches contain some of the extracted files, but not nearly all of them. Only the ones that Wesp makes changes to.